Medical

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21906, 15 September 1934, Page 7 (Supplement)

Medical

By L. F. De BERRY, M.A.

ACTIONS PROMPTED BY IDEALS

Two Mighty Inseparables in Their Relation to Health

[The sixth of a series of articles published

under the auspices of the Sunlight League]

How the practical man loves to divide mankind into two classes—the practical person and the idealist! He is quite sure that these two classes are mutually exclusive and so he acts anct talks Who does not remember the scorn poured by the armchair critic on Sir lan Hamilton because he loved and wrote poetry? Even at this distance one can recall the almost ribald tones that the practical ones adopted when the word "poet" was used in the stressful days of 19141918. But are we so sure that we have here a perfect dichotomy? Can the practical stand alone, unsupported by the ideal? May it not be that Shelley was correct when he said, " Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world"? Is it not rather nearer the truth to proclaim that the practical can stand only when it is based on a worthy ideal ? Goal of Endeavour Listen again to a poet, this time to Robert Bridges: " The high goal of our great endeavour is spiritual attainment, individual worth, at all cost to be sought and at all cost pursued, to be won at all cost and at all cost assured; not such material ease as might be attained for all, by cheap production and distribution of common needs, were all life levell'd down to where the lowest could reach." Here the value of individual worth is stressed and mankind again reminded

thoughts; and while pointing out to us that the aim of life is the expression and realisation of the noblest and highest self possibly conceived, have urged the relationship between a healthful blood supply and a beautifully functioning and harmonious body. Hence the value of pointing to the ideals for which the Sunlight League stands. True, the mere fact of knowing what those ideals are does not necessarily ensure that they are practised; but there is a virtue in pointing out the splendour and the simplicity of bodily, mental and emotional health and vigour The psychologist too frequently, in his elaborate analyses, forgets the essential oneness of man, and so it becomes more and more necessary to pause and to ask just what all these analyses mean and what lesson they have for the man or woman who simply seeks that "abundant life" *»at has been so frequently promised to all of those who earnestly seek for it. What are some of the necessary conditions for this noble self expression and realisation? There appear to he two: — First, mental and spiritual energy must be accumulated; and, secondly, that energy must be wisely expended, used and shared.

The Worship of the Sun

To discover how best to do this we must go to the sources of that energy. These are, first, that great source of all physical energy—the sun; and secondly, all those factors directly and indirectly dependent upon the sun—food being one of the chief. Is it any wonder that in ancient times our ancestors, recognising this, went to the extent of worshipping the sun? What, to-day, are all the lessons of science, and particularly of medical and dietary science, but a discovery—-in many cases a rediscovery—of our debt to solar energy and an attempt to enable and persuade man to use to greater and fuller extent those benign forces which the Great Giver of all has made available. Witness the improvements in architecture seeking to bring into our homes the benefits of sunshine and fresh air; the purifying of the air by seeking the abatement of smoke; the researches into food content; into vitamins and their functions; the endeavours to give fresh and pure air, water and food; and it will be appreciated that these are but attempts to banish all that hinders mankind from gaining abundant supplies of the energy that is being so lavishly shed abroad. Personal and Public Conscience

While man lives, he is expending his energy, often expending it wastefully, and yet how difficult it is to alter these wasteful methods. We know many of the laws governing fatigue, the need for rest and for recreation, the value of self-control, the need for temperance in all things; in a word, we know that it is only by harmony that we can develop and enjoy the full life and yet we are surrounded by courses of action that are the relics of days of ignorance and superstition. What is the remedy? The development, first, of a healthy "conscience" in these matters and, secondly, the formation of habits that will tend to harmonious living and that will free the soul and the borlv too, for those tasks that still lie ahead of us. Herein lies the value of the series of articles that have preceded this one. Their purpose has been to awaken or maybe create, first, a personal and then a public conscience that strives for a nobler race, and, secondly, to encourage habits of health that will lead to the ideals of beauty, truth and goodness.